For an organization to run successfully, there are certain structures that needs to be put in place especially the administrative power of an organizations so there is need to carefully think about the structure to adopt in sharing this powers and there are two forms of organizational structure that can be used which are; Decentralization and Centralization.

Decentralization

is a kind of organizational structure in which the administrative and decision making responsibilities are distributed by the central authority to the subordinate authorities. This is done majorly to ease administrative burden off the central authorities, the subordinate authorities deals with less important problems in the organization. Decentralization happens every where cause it is impossible for a single person especially in a large business organization setting to effectively manage the affairs of the organization, there's need to delegate responsibility to various people who will serve like a representative of this central authority. Let's take Tony elumelu the founder of United bank of africa for example, it is impossible for only him to make all decisions for the thousands of branch his bank has in Africa, he needs to delegate power to some people who will act as the manager of each branches thereby easing him burden responsibilities.

Centralization

is the a type of administrative structure whereby the decision making responsibilities of an organization rest with the central authority only and all other subordinate units receive and carry out orders and regulations made by the central body. Powers are not distributed under this kind of settings, only decision and other informations are passed to the other unit so the manager has little input into how a branch operates. Example of a centralized organization Is Microsoft, Bill Gates makes decisions for his company and this decisions are dispersed to the local management.

There are alot of differences between this structure and some of them are :

Centralization is the systematic and consistent concentration of power at central points that is, authority with respect to planning and decisions making is resided in the top management only. There is hierarchy of authorities in this type of structure, Unlike, decentralization. It is the systematic distribution of authority in an organization that is administrative powers and authorities are delegated from the central management to the subordinate units allowing the units to make decisions for themselves.

Centralization is advisable for only small scale organizations, its is ideal for only organizations who don't have lot of office branch or who are limited to certain area, there is no need to distribute powers in this type of situation as the top management can take control of it effectively but for decentralization, it is majorly meant for large scale organizations who venture into a lot business activities or who have a lot of branches, decentralization allows for easy management of this activities.

Decentralization is more expensive than Centralization, in decentralization, more workers are needed to assist in taking care of a business organization, there is need to employ expert who are experienced in the field concerned with the business unlike Centralization, where there is no need to employ extra work force since the top management thinks for the whole business.

Advantages of Decentralization:

It helps to allow employees to me more creative, Employees are motivated to be creative because they have more autonomy to make their own decisions and think out the box giving them a feeling of importance and making them feel as if they have more input in the development of the organization so they will be able to implement their ideas.

Easing the administrative burden off the top management, Decentralizing takes some of the burden of running the organization off the central authority. The subordinate units perform some responsibility like hiring of staff, receiving customer complaints and resolving them and other petty matters. This allows the central body to focus of ways to develop the business.

Faster decision making process, decentralization allows for faster decision making process as the manager that is the subordinate unit head can make decisions relating to the business faster as there is no need to wait for chain of command from the central authority.

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Also it makes a business integration into a new area easy, when a new branch is created in a new area, decentralization allows the business to operate as an independent entity where it can react more easily and quickly to the specific needs of the area like selling products in a way that appeals to the local market. For example, a bag company who prints bags and customize them Arabic might deciced to start selling it bags in Vatican city so there is need to change the customization into another language so the new market can understand what is written and this will boost the sale.

Also decentralization allows for better control and supervision as each manager is accountable to the central authority and each manager is responsible for the growth and fall of his or her branch.

Disadvantages of decentralization are:

Lack of uniformity in policies, in decentralization, policies are different because each manager makes decision in regards to the branch unit and problems varies from branch to branch.

Conflict ; in decentralization, there is likely to be clash between the central unit and subordinate, since the all units are pressured to make profits, the manager profit making plan might clash with the central authority's plan thereby causing disagreements between them.

Decentralization is also very expensive, it involves the employment of expert or trained personnel to help in administering divisional units so this increase the organization expenses and create more financial burden.

Another disadvantage of decentralization is that it can lead to loss of control over the organization, the top management might lose control over the administration due to much delegation of power to subordinate unit as this units head might be acting in their own personal interest and not the organisation interest.

Lastly, decentralization make an organization prone to instability due to constant clash between the top management and divisional head.

Advantages of Centralization are :

There is a clear chain of powers and command in an organization because every employee knows who to report or approach whenever they have concerns about the organization. Also the senior executives follow a clear plan of delegating authority to employees who qualified in specific functions. This is beneficial when the organization needs to implement decisions quickly and in a uniform manner.

Common goal, in centralized management structure, the focus is on the fulfillment of organizations objectives. Both the top the top executive and employee work earnestly to achive all these goals also they the give guidelines for a smooth implementation of these visions.

Also Centralization reduce cost in an organization. The decision-makers work at headquarters so the organization does not need to spend more money to hire expert for its branches since all decisions are made at the head office and then communicated to all branches.

Absence of clash between the top management and divisional heads, since all decisions are made by the central authority, there is little or absence of conflict between the head and units since only the head can make decisions.

Lastly, the strict rules and regulations that is associated with Centralization improves the quality of work, there are supervisor who ensure that there is uniformity in the output and quality of services or product. They make sure all output are standard according to the organization taste.

Disadvantages of Centralization are :

Slow decision making process : decisions are not easy to make in a centralized management structure because decision needs to go through a chain of command to be thoroughly examined before been implemented and this takes alot of time.

The central authority is more pressured, since the central authority is the only one allowed to think for the company, many issues are brought to their desk constantly and this increase their workload also the central authority will be too busy to see to the implementation of policies.

Also Centralization doesn't create room for employees creativity, since power revolves around only one person, workers can't implement their ideas to make the organization more developed. It destroy employees initiative since they only carry out what they are asked to do in a specified manner.

Centralization slows down the organization development, since the central authority is overburdened with many responsibilities, there is no time to important task which are necessary for the development of the organization like planning, motivation and coordination.

Lack of specialization, since only one body makes all the decisions, in ventures into every units that way and there's little or no experience about some of this unit.

In this present competitive world, there's need to adopt the most suitable structure that will benefit the organization. A large scale company must decentralized management structure to ensure the growth of the company because this structure allows the organisation to suit different needs of the people and this really help in increasing the profit alot while it is advisable for a small scale business to use centralized management structure so as to generate more profit to develop the organisation, if a small scale business should incur decentralized structures, it would incur more cost and this will reduce the organization's profit.

How to know if a block chain is decentralized,

Decentralization in blockchain refers to the transfer of control from a centralized entity to specific network. It tries to reduce the level of trust that participants must have in each other and discourage their ability to exert authority or control over one another in ways that affect the functionality of the network.

For a blockchain to be called decentralized blockchain, it must possess some feature which are:

Control, a decentralized blockchain, the data belongs to concerned parties only, it doesn't belong to a specific person.

Also a decentralized blockchain is more secured although not so faster but the security level is of high standard.

@yousafharoonkhan